Wonderwall
by YellowRubix
Summary: Following the events of 'Sock Opera' Mabel has some things she needs to get off her chest, same as Dipper. They both had scars following that night. D/M sibling fluff.


*Cover art belongs to **moringmark **on Tumblr, check out the blog for more amazing work.

**Title: **Wonderwall (alternatively named "Two Sides of a Coin")  
**Rating: **T  
**Type: **One-shot

**Inspiration(s): **Mabel's confession through puppet!Mabel at the end of 'Sock Opera,' and generally the epic, _life-ruining_ sibling love between the Mystery Twins.

**A/N: **This is too sweet tbh, I'm making this is a warning. Sleeping overnight with cotton candy in your mouth probably won't give you cavities half as bad as this will.

**Disclaimer****: **I do not own Gravity Falls, nor the lovely artwork pictured above.

* * *

_There are many things that I would  
Like to say to you but I don't know how  
Because maybe  
You're gonna be the one that saves me  
And after all, you're my wonderwall  
_\- **Oasis**, "Wonderwall"_  
_

* * *

They stayed close together following the impromptu end to the show. Which was nothing unusual for them. It had become routine following any ordeal they went through. It was simply a subtle way of reminding each other that the other was still there and they were both okay- Gravity Falls hadn't gotten the best of them.

Soos and Wendy re-loaded the surviving parts of Mabel's set to bring back to the shack in Soos's pickup while the costumes were packed away in Stan's old car. Soos was going to drop Wendy off at home, while the kids rode with Stan. Meanwhile, the Pines twins shared a fleeting look. It wasn't much, really. Just enough to convey what the other already knew;

They needed to talk: _alone._

After a moment of argument with their great uncle insisting that; 'No, Grunkle Stan you can't walk off what's probably a fractured wrist,' and; 'No, Grunkle Stan you can't just rub dirt on a black flippin' eye,' he pulled over in front of the local clinic.

Stan manually rolled down the window on the old vehicle and leaned an elbow on top of the door.

"Well maybe you two shouldn't have broken out in some kinda back alley wrestling match," he stated matter of fact, "'_don't_ try this stuff at home' is always the disclaimer. What the heck were you fighting about anyway?"

Twin pupils simultaneously met as they came up with a story on the spot.

"Uh... yeah, you're right," Dipper spoke up, "our bad. We just had some, er- _creative _differences. That's right."

He laughed uneasily and Mabel soon joined in.

"Yup. Dipper was just being a butt about playing the reverend," she added, "so we sorted out our differences the old-fashion way." She lifted her fists. "Pow! Pow!"

Dipper grinned, hooking an arm around her shoulder. "That's right. We just got a bit... _carried away _is all. Yeah..."

Stan shook his head. "And here I thought you kids never listen to me. I'm proud of you."

He reached through the open window and patted them both on the head.

"A man's best asset is always his fists," he said sagely, "and in your case, Mabel; a woman's, I guess."

"Whatever you say, Grunkle Stan." They both replied, eyeing each other awkwardly.

"Well, I better get this broken, ragtail body patched up..." Dipper began.

"But we'll be fine. It's only a few blocks away, we can hoof it!" Mabel finished, "besides it'll give us some quality sibling time."

She grinned, elbowing Dipper in the ribs.

He hissed as she caught his injured side. Honestly, he was so proud of Mabel and thankful that she saved the day and him. But did she have to be so _violent _about it? She almost did as much damage as Bill!

"We have material to discuss," she continued, "_important_ material. Which is not suitable for adults!"

"Ugh. Preteen drama." Stan rolled his eyes. "Make sure you're back at the shack by ten o'clock, sharp!" He fixed them with a stern expression.

They grinned and bobbed their heads. "Not a moment sooner." They replied again in unison.

Stan nodded once and peeled away from the curb.

"Do you think we should tell him that wasn't really you tonight?" Mabel asked as they watched him drive away for a moment.

"Yeah," Dipper agreed, "but not now. He warned us to only use the journal in self-defense. He doesn't need to know we had a whole laptop that might have told us everything."

_'Of course she doesn't need to know I had my fingers crossed when I made that promise...'_

* * *

An hour later and they were good to go. Dipper's arm wasn't broken, but it was dislocated and pretty badly mangled. He needed several stitches where the forks had been jammed into his arm as well. He was instructed to take Tylenol, but to avoid any aspirins like Advil since it could prolong the bleeding. Most of all, he was ordered to take plenty of rest. Especially given how many consecutive nights he'd been awake.

Mabel received a check-up too. She wasn't injured like Dipper, but she still had a number of bruises; a) due to her fall from the catwalk (luckily for her, unluckily for Dipper, she'd landed mostly on Bill), and b) from her scuffle with the demon. It had been satisfying to whack him in the face with the journal though. WHUMP! In the _face_!

All the while Dipper couldn't look away as the nurse iced Mabel's bruises. They were his fingerprints on her skin. They weren't made by him, but he was still indirectly responsible.

Afterwards they'd walked home in silence for awhile, side by side. The sparse streetlights illuminated the setting, the only sounds being the occasional passing car.

Dipper grunted, rubbing his arm. "Seriously though. The first thing I gotta do is get out of these threads. What even is this?" He tugged on the black clothing. "A jacket with wings, or a skirt with the front cut off?"

Mabel laughed loudly and reached over, lightly punching his- thankfully- uninjured shoulder this time. "That's a tailcoat, Dippin' Sauce."

"A tailcoat... seriously? Who even wears that stuff anymore?"

"I dunno. That stuff was big in like the eighteen hundreds. And the early nineteen hundreds. That's all I know."

"How _do _you know?"

"Hey! I did my research before the show! I was doing a _period piece_, if the war wasn't a giveaway."

She walked closer to him and looped her arm through his.

"I wanted it to be authentic, you know," she explained.

"Okay, okay." He relented, ignoring that they'd finished each others sentences with the same word and leaving the topic of Bill's wardrobe to the backburner. They'd probably gossip about it later anyway. Dipper decided they should move onto more pressing matters.

"Let's just forget about him for now, Dip. He's been... _sockupied_." Mabel giggled.

Meanwhile, she was having a bit of a panic. Oh, cheese and crackers! It finally dawned on her. Before Dipper had filled her in on what was going on, all that time backstage she'd been talking to _Bill_.

She'd helped him pick out what to wear in the play, rehearsed his lines with him, and was just having a good ol' bro-sis chat while he'd _talked back_. Not that she took note of whatever the heckle deckle he said; she was too absorbed in her play. Plus, she'd thought he was Dipper! Frantically, she backpedaled and wondered if she had said anything incriminating. It was one thing to tell that stuff to her broski, but to Bill?! This was so _weird_...

They walked another block in silence until Dipper started chuckling.

"Geez, Mabes. Don't tell me you're developing a sweating problem too."

He patted the fist which was currently gripped tightly to his- okay, so it was a _bit _flimsy- bicep. "Your hand's all clammy."

"Ah!" She nervously rubbed what Dipper called the 'weird fringe thing' on the back of her head.

"It's nothing, broseph," she reassured, "just a little shocky after tonight I guess. Because like, hooo boy! That was a doozy. Ah ha ha."

She shifted awkwardly. There it was. One of them had finally broached the topic of tonight. Better now then later.

Mabel played with the frayed sleeve of her coral pink sweater. Shoot, she'd have to fix that later.

"I'm sorry, Dipper." She had already apologized once but felt that more needed to be said.

"I was being a bad sister. I was so caught up with _Gabe_," she cringed at the name now, "you must have been so mad at me. You've wanted answers for so long and they were right there..." she trailed off uneasily.

"I was angry," Dipper admitted, "I just... need to know that you always have my back." _It means the most to me_, he added to himself. But something told him Mabel already knew.

They continued on in companionable silence, Dipper waiting patiently. Finally she spoke up and shocked him (to say the least) with her next sentence.

"Funny enough. It was Bill who made me see I wasn't being fair to you."

Dipper jumped. The sound of screeching tires and crunching metal filling his ears. Frantically he looked around, but there was not a car insight. After a moment of deliberation he realized they were his own thoughts crashing together.

...

...

... _What_?

"What?!" Dipper echoed his thoughts.

Mabel stopped suddenly and he followed suit, slightly panicked for a minute that the demon managed to manipulate her too. Gingerly she pulled her arm away from his.

"It was just something he said up in the fly loft," she answered but didn't elaborate, "the point is that you always give stuff up for me: solving mysteries which you love, romance, even employment. I'm not saying I always drop the ball, but I haven't exactly been as... selfless towards her sibling. Oh, Dipper-"

It crashed down on her all at once. The pain he must have been feeling this past week. He probably thought she wouldn't care too. Then the bodily harm he had suffered _tonight_. All which could have been avoided if she had just... but how could she have known _this_ would happen? No, stop. The 'how' didn't matter; it still happened and she could have...

She covered her face as tears of shame spilled forth.

"I'm a terrible sister!" she cried out suddenly, "I acted so selfishly. I'm supposed to be the big sister but it's always you who does all the protecting."

She sobbed fully now, her voice had fallen to such a sad whimper. It was just so _un_-Mabel and Dipper didn't like it. At all.

He shook his head, his words finally catching up to him. "Hey... now hang on, just- just give me a sec!"

He awkwardly shifted toward her as his sore muscles cramped up from being stationary. He placed a hand on her shoulder, lightly curling his fingers behind her neck.

"Don't worry about it," he reassured, "it's over, man. We're the Mystery Twins: bigger and badder than ever. Well, we're still working on the 'bigger' part, but we're _bad_."

She smiled through the tears and a soft giggle escaped. "The whole 'Mystery Twin' thing has really rubbed off on you, huh?"

He grinned crookedly, eyes rolling upward. "Yup. It really has."

Mabel scuffed her shoe against the aged pavement, working up the courage to say what had been truly bothering her.

"I... I can't promise it won't happen again," she said quietly, "I know I get distracted easily. But things have never been that intense before..."

She trailed off, the thread she'd been pulling at came unraveled.

She exhaled shakily, wiping her face and said with a sniff, "I know he wasn't you. I knew that even the first time I _really _saw him looking like you. But..."

The soft wisp of bangs fell over her eyes as she directed her gaze downward.

"I never want to see that again."

"Mabel..." Dipper's eyebrows hitched together. He hadn't thought of that. He wanted to hit himself. How could he _not_ have? That image was probably burned into her mind right now.

A demon possessing the body of a loved one with the intent to hurt or worse? That was nightmare fuel.

After listening to her confess her fear, he felt that he needed to get something out in the open too.

"I'm afraid," he said quietly.

Her head shot up. "Afraid? Afraid of what?" She wanted to hit herself. _'Way to interrupt him when he's opening up to you, dummy!'_

"You were right, Mabel," Dipper said in a moment of clarity, "I- I _am_ obsessed. How many times am I going to put everyone in danger because of my dumb fascination with all the mysteries this place has to offer?"

He clutched his hair, feelings of shame bubbling in his gut.

"I- I'm just so desperate for answers to all these questions," he stammered, "sometimes I don't even know _where_ this feeling comes from! It's like, I shouldn't care this much, but then I pick up the journal again and I can't stop..."

Mabel looked on sadly as he acknowledged fears he probably never knew he had. She was glad to hear him admit that he had a problem. She knew it wouldn't last though. The stress of the evening had taken a toll on her brother, both mentally and physically. But tomorrow he would get right back out there, hot on the trail of the next lead.

Much like it was in her nature to be optimistic and creative, Dipper was not truly Dipper if he wasn't curious and inquisitive. He had always liked mysteries, his collection of novels was proof enough. It was a part of him. But just being fascinated by something didn't make it dangerous, did it? At this point in time, she couldn't see how. Maybe things would make more sense when they got older.

But she couldn't stand to see him distressed.

"Then- then you come talk to your favourite sister!" she blurted out suddenly.

He raised an eyebrow.

"You're my only sister." he deadpanned.

"It's still valid! Listen, we tell each other stuff right? Like almost everything?"

He nodded. For the most part.

"You still have to tell me about those 'vampires' sometime." he joked.

She shrugged, giving him a mysterious smile but not offering a further explanation. This was going to drive him crazy!

"Well then there's an obvious solution," she continued, "when you come up with new theories, when you feel like you're on the brink of something big and when it gets to be too much; you can let some of it out by talking to me. Put the onus on yours truly!"

She extended her arms towards him. "Right?"

Dipper rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess so. I do feel better after talking to you about it," he chuckled, "you're kinda like a muse I can bounce ideas off."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment. Him looking uneasy, her standing with her arms outstretched.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

Mabel huffed. "You said you were going to give it to me."

"... Huh?!"

"Tsk. The _onus_, silly!"

"What." He looked down at his hands. "You want me to like, _mime _giving you the onus or something? I don't think that quite works." And why did this suddenly feel like a segment of 'The Word of the Day' on Sesame Street?

She shrugged. "I think it would be a nice, symbolic gesture."

He looked at his hands for another second, almost in confusion, then awkwardly placed a closed palm in hers.

Unimpressed, Mabel held up her thumb and index fingers like they were enclosed around a coin. "That's it?"

"I guess...?"

"Unacceptable!"

She was on him the next moment. And what started as poking became a full-blown ticklefest. Between gasps of laughter and telling her to stop and _oh geez_, he really shouldn't be laughing right now. His ribs _hurt _but he didn't care at all. In this moment he couldn't even feel the pain. It was weird. Yet nice.

Because this reminded him how much fun this summer has been, just hanging out with Mabel.

"THERE IT IS!" She pulled away suddenly, arms forming a loop in front of her. "I _knew_ you were lying!" She wet a finger and placed it in the imaginary circle. "Oh yeah. That's legit onus that is."

He just gawked at her incredulously. If it weren't for their near identical looks, save for obvious gender differences, there were times when he questioned if they were even related.

Then there were _these_ times, and they were the most important. It was when he realized that Mabel's optimism was exactly what he needed to keep him grounded. When fear should win over rational thought, she managed to lighten a bad situation enough so he could think clearly and find an escape.

They were a team: two sides of the same coin. He knew this, as did she. One was needed to balance the other out, or they would be incomplete.

Sure, people could attribute all that to them being twins. But not all twins had such unique personalities that meshed so perfectly when fitted with the other. They were quite the force to be reckoned with.

He exhaled, an overwhelming feeling of relief replacing the bitterness he'd felt toward her earlier. "You're an idiot."

"And you're a moron." she countered cheekily.

He sighed once more and held out his arms. "Awkward sibling hug?"

He barely finished the sentence when his proffered arms were filled with his sister. She tightened hers around him- uncomfortably as his body was _really_ messed up- but he didn't care in the least.

She nuzzled her cheek against his ear and hair. "I think when you've faced countless crazies in an equally crazy town full of crazies with someone, the awkward becomes trivial and redundant. Don't you think?"

He inwardly started, similar words in his own entry on the blank pages of his journal coming back to him. It was true, in a town where nothing was what it seemed, there was always one person you could trust. That despite the occasional hiccup, you could count on. And this just proved it.

The thing about being around someone as optimistic as Mabel is that her optimism rubs off on everyone. In fact, Dipper was convinced that there wasn't anyone she couldn't put a smile on... okay, he really needed to get that ridiculous song out of his head _now_!

He tightened his own arms around her, echoing the strength of her hold. The times when Mabel was philosophical were admittedly few, but when she was: everyone took notice. Because man, her words were _deep_.

"Yes. Yes I do, Mabes."

After another moment they pulled away.

Dipper winced, moving his limbs to and fro as they began to stiffen up.

"Ouch. I really need to sleep this one off," he grunted, "I can hardly move my legs- freaking Bill. _Pain is hilarious_." He pinched his nose and mocked in a nasally voice.

Mabel cackled at the (honestly bad) imitation and turned her back on him. She crouched down low and extended her arms backwards.

"Well then, hop on the Mabel Express to Mystery! Capacity: one."

He backed away. "Oh no. No- nononononono. Absolutely _not_."

"... Please?"

"_No_."

"You know you're going to give in eventually, just make it easy on yourself!"

Dipper refused to budge, now crossing his arms defiantly.

Mabel sighed. He always had issues with self-worth. Still stuck in the throes of being a prepubescent boy; his voice changing but his body not yet catching up. And the idea of having to be carried by his _female_ twin obviously did not sit well with him.

"Come on, Dip," she persuaded, "no one's around. Your masculinity will stay intact. I promise."

He shifted slightly, then changed his mind. "It's not happening, Mabel."

"Besides," she added wistfully under her breath but more to herself, "the eldest has to act like the eldest sometimes..."

Dipper paused, eyes travelling over his sister's hunched frame. Whether it was her rueful tone or his aching limbs begging for a respite, he finally gave in. He sighed, moving towards her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He adjusted his position as she rose back to her feet.

Mabel was stronger than she looked. She did carry Waddles around regularly and he'd gotten much bigger than the fifteen pounds he weighed when she won him... and she _did_ spoil him rotten. But even before that, she had always been freakishly strong. Dipper would have to work extra hard to catch up.

As they continued down the street she recalled the time he did this for her when they were five years old. She had scraped her knees while they were playing, then proceeded to cry and hiccup until he picked her up. It wasn't until they got home that he realized she had been milking the whole thing. Especially with her grinning at him- cheeks dry- and exclaiming how she had 'con-nen-ded' him. Apparently, Mabel had some of their great uncle in her even then.

"HA! You were soooo mad!" she cackled.

Hearing no usual sardonic response, she glanced over her shoulder. "Dip?"

He was sound asleep, lulled from listening to his sister speak of simpler times. His arms had slackened from around her neck and now dangled over her shoulders. The side of his face was nestled against the back of her head. Smiling, she faced forward again.

"Let's go home, bro-bro."

Dipper's unconcious mind lingered on in fear of what might become of him if he kept true to this path of discovering all the mysteries behind Gravity Falls. Mabel continued walking towards their summer home, knowing well that her usually sweet dreams would be nightmares, filled with the image of a monster wearing her brother's face. Whether they were influenced or just her own fears, she knew they would stay for a long time.

At least they would have these moments to look back on.

And no one could truly take that away.

_**Finis**_


End file.
